A California doctor who supplied Friends star Matthew Perry with ketamine has been sentenced to 30 months in prison, becoming the first person to receive prison time in connection with the actor's overdose death.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia was one of five defendants indicted in a years-long federal investigation that examined how Perry acquired the dissociative anesthetic through an underground drug ring in Hollywood.
Perry, 54, was found dead in his Los Angeles home in 2023 after years of battling depression and addiction.
Perry's family asked the judge for a lengthy sentence, calling Placencia “the culprit most” and detailing their efforts to understand why he repeatedly supplied Perry with drugs.
“Mr Plasencia accepts the court's verdict today with humility and deep remorse,” his legal team said in a statement to the BBC.
“He was a good doctor who was loved by those he treated. He was not a villain,” the statement said. “He is someone who made serious errors in his treatment decisions related to the off-label use of ketamine.”
Placencia pleaded guilty in the summer to four ketamine distribution points. The charges carried a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison, although prosecutors had asked for a sentence of three years in prison.
Four other defendants in the case, including another doctor, his assistant and two people who provided the dose of ketamine that killed him, have also pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced in the coming months.
Best known for his role as Chandler Bing on Friends, the sitcom star has been open and vocal about his struggles with depression and drug addiction over the years.
“Matthew's recovery depended on you saying NO,” his father John and stepmother Debbie wrote in an emotional letter before Plasencia's sentencing. “Your motives? I can't imagine. A doctor whose life is dedicated to helping people?”
The actor's father and stepmother said the loss had “devastated” their family as their “next patriarch” was no longer there, and accused Placencia – a doctor whom Perry's mother and stepfather called a “jackal” – of repeatedly breaking the Hippocratic Oath.
Perry's parents submitted letters, known as victim impact statements, to the judge for review before sentencing.
His mother and stepfather, Suzanne and Keith Morrison, in a victim impact statement highlighted text messages included in court records in which Plasencia called Perry an “idiot” and questioned how much he was willing to pay for drugs.
“Sometimes it’s a little easier to understand when a person commits a terrible crime. Maybe in a state of passion or because this person makes one very bad decision,” they wrote. “But… a doctor? Who sells respect and trust?
They said Matthew has spent time trying to recover and is hoping for another acting comeback.
“He wanted, needed, deserved… a third act. It was… in planning. And then, these jackals.”
In a letter to a judge last month, Plascencia apologized and said he took full responsibility for his actions and role in Perry's death.
“It was not my intention to harm anyone, but my decisions during those days betrayed my duty as a physician,” Plascencia wrote. “I crossed a line that no doctor should ever cross. Nobody forced me to do this; it was my own misjudgment.”
He explained that his medical clinic was struggling and, despite Perry seeing “signs of addiction”, the offer of “large sums of money was attractive”.
Plasencia also said he voluntarily gave up his medical license when he was arrested and abandoned his clinic and the profession that once defined him. He said he would “accept whatever sentence the court deems appropriate.”
Ketamine has some hallucinogenic effects and should only be prescribed by a doctor.
The actor took legal, prescribed doses of the drug to treat depression, but then began wanting more than what he was given.
Court documents in the federal investigation show that led him to several doctors and a female prosecutor nicknamed the “Ketamine Queen” who supplied huge amounts of the drug and other drugs from her Los Angeles home, which they called a “drug hub.”
Prosecutors allege that Plasencia, also known as “Dr. P,” injected Perry with ketamine at his home and in the parking lot of an aquarium in Long Beach, about 25 miles south of Los Angeles.
According to court documents submitted for the plea agreement, Plasencia taught Perry's assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, who also pleaded guilty in the case, how to administer the drug and sold them extra vials so they could store them at home.
Prosecutors allege that between September 30, 2023 and October 12, 2023, Plasencia sold Perry and his assistant twenty 5 ml (100 mg/ml) vials, ketamine lozenges and syringes.
Prosecutors said Plasencia and the other defendants in the case “took advantage of Perry's addiction problems to enrich themselves.”
